All language subtitles for Colosseum.Rise.And.Fall.S01E01.1080p.HDTV.H264.CBFM

Ancient Rome -

heart of a powerful empire...

..and home to a monument
to blood and brutality...

..the Colosseum.

The Colosseum is the largest
amphitheatre ever built

in the Roman world.

The most famous,
the most impressive monument

in the ancient city of Rome.

For over 400 years

it reflected the supreme might
of the Roman Empire.

We get a sense
of incredible engineering,

incredible architecture,

and, of course, what took place here

is something
that still leaves us in awe.

Built to amaze

but also
to entertain, educate and control.

Rome had
to find a way to keep hold of power,

and, whilst the games
entertained the crowds,

it sent a message
to those who would cross Rome -

"This is what happens to you."

Argh!

Now, as archaeology uncovers hidden
layers of the monument,

revealing its former glory,

further research into amphitheatres
across the Roman world

and their blood-soaked spectacles

sheds light on long-held myths
about the Colosseum and the games.

It was just overwhelming
how many injuries we found.

What are the origins
of the Colosseum?

What was the purpose
of these barbaric spectacles?

And why did the Romans
go to such lengths

to put on such a show?

It's in many ways

one of the most political buildings
of the city of Rome

and arguably
of the Roman Empire as a whole.

The year is 80 CE.

50,000 Romans take their places

to witness the first games
held in the brand-new Colosseum...

..a lavish spectacle
of death and drama

on a scale never seen before.

Trained hunters, known as 'venators',

slaughter exotic animals
from across the empire.

Criminals are forced to act out
ancient myths before their execution.

And the highlight?

Gladiator fights.

Hundreds of them.

What you see inside the games

is a microcosm
of the reality of the world order.

Rome is in charge.

The emperor is in charge.

In 80 CE

the emperor ruled over a realm that
spread from North Africa to Germany,

from the north of England to Syria.

Over 40 million people.
5 million square kilometres.

Those first games matched
the empire's scale and scope...

..distilled into 3,000 square metres
of arena floor.

This is the epicentre of the entire
Roman Empire under the emperors.

But the Colosseum wasn't
the first amphitheatre in Rome.

In a more ancient part of the city,

just half a kilometre
from the Colosseum...

..historian and archaeologist
Darius Arya

finds evidence
of an earlier structure...

..the Forum,

over 2,500 years old.

This is where everyone's gathering,
trading, selling.

The pulse of the city is right here.

But, as well as the public market,

Darius believes this space
was also used for entertainment.

We have ancient sources telling us
it was the tradition,

maybe as early
as the 3rd century BC,

definitely in the 2nd century BC,

that this was the location,
in this piazza,

that the major gladiatorial games
were performed.

This was where the first venue for
gladiator fights was built in Rome,

a temporary amphitheatre.

Originally
the seating is made of wood,

temporarily erected
around this Forum space

on the occasion
of the gladiatorial games,

and then dismantled,

and then business as usual
in the Forum.

Nothing remains
of the temporary seating,

but there are still clues to be found
that reveal the shape of the arena.

The ancient marketplace, or piazza,

was paved in the early 1st century.

Beneath this paving, Darius spots
traces of older structures.

I can see the pavers
of the imperial period

that are still present,

except for right here.

So, they've been removed,

and what's been revealed
is this very, very deep shaft.

Oh, yeah, that's really deep.

Here's another one of these shafts

that's in the central area
of the Forum piazza.

12 shafts stretch across the Forum,

evidence the amphitheatre included
a complex underground infrastructure.

But who built them?

And what were they for?

Archaeological evidence and studies

suggest that these shafts
are actually put in

by none other than Julius Caesar,

who is celebrating his triumph
in 46 BC.

The shafts
are part of an elaborate system

to move animals and gladiators
into position

before releasing them
onto the amphitheatre floor...

..a forerunner
of the maze of tunnels and lifts

found under the Colosseum today.

But Darius believes

the Colosseum inherits more than just
this arena's subterranean labyrinth.

What gives shape to this
construction in the 2nd century BC

will be two basilicas...

..the Basilica Aemelia,
the Basilica Giulia,

always giving this framework
to the central piazza.

The only space for an arena
sat between these two basilicas.

A circular structure
can't include all 12 shafts.

A rectangle could enclose the shafts,

but creates blind spots
for the crowd.

The space
that includes all the shafts

and gives the best view
for the audience

is an oval.

This then is the inspiration
for the final permanent construction

of the venues we call amphitheatres.

The Forum's
temporary wooden amphitheatre

was the first of its kind,

and it was oval in shape.

It's a distinct
architectural construction

that was created by the Romans

for their unique games
of gladiators.

Almost four centuries later

the Romans achieved the pinnacle
of amphitheatre construction -

the Colosseum.

But, unlike the amphitheatre
in the Forum,

this one was built to last,
set in stone, not wood,

and a place where Romans could enjoy
that most Roman of entertainment...

..gladiator fights.

Gladiators are central to our story.

Public entertainment in Rome,

they are central
to the story of the Colosseum.

Very successful performances,
people came in droves.

So, there was something

fundamentally attractive,
fundamentally enthusing about shows

that we,
from our own modern point of view,

regard as gory
and problematic in so many ways.

But our job is to try and understand

why these shows were so meaningful
to so many people.

So, how did the gladiator games
originate?

To investigate, Darius Arya has come
to Paestum in southern Italy.

This is a fascinating
site, originally a Greek colony

that, with the passing of time,

is going to be overtaken
by the Lucanians -

indigenous Italian peoples
here in Campania -

and the city continues to thrive.

Archaeologists have discovered
a series of painted frescoes

inside ancient Lucanian tombs...

..now carefully preserved
in climate-controlled rooms.

They are almost 200 years older

than the wooden amphitheatre
in Rome's Forum.

Here we have the interior
of a Lucanian tomb,

and we see
two major scenes.

It looks like almost
two guys at war,

but the context can't be war.

You have these festoons
dividing the scenes.

This is a scene of entertainment,
of some sort of spectacle.

Here these guys are boxing.

Over here we have

what look like
to be warriors.

They've got helmets and shields
and they've got their long lances,

and they're literally
killing themselves,

because this one's going
right into this guy's face.

This is incredible violence.

These men are not gladiators

but slaves.

At funerary games

slaves would fight to the death
to honour the recently departed.

And the blood goes down
to the gods of the underworld.

It's a great offering.

These Lucanian frescoes

are evidence that this most Roman
of traditions - gladiator fights -

is not even Roman.

So, how did Rome
take a religious tradition

and turn it into mass entertainment?

When these frescoes are painted,
Rome is a small city-state.

The Etruscans sit to the north,

the Lucanians and Samnites
to the south.

All but Rome hold funerary games.

Then in the 4th century BCE

Rome looks to expand,
and takes on her neighbours.

Ultimately, Rome is the victor.

By 264 BCE

in Rome we have these games
being performed.

So, where is it coming from?

It's coming from the people
that they're interacting with,

they're going to war with
and ultimately absorbing ideas from.

Over time, as Rome becomes dominant,

it also absorbs
its enemies' traditions,

such as fights to the death.

Thinking about
that original context,

when you have the gladiatorial games
first documented in Rome,

it's in a funerary context.

Rich Roman families would organise
funerary games for the deceased...

Combatti!

..initially
private religious occasions.

But, as their popularity increased,

they were recast
as events for the masses,

but with a twist.

These new public games
would send a clear message,

more than simple entertainment
or offerings to appease the gods.

They were an expression of power.

When you look
at gladiatorial armour,

it's very over-the-top.

It's not functional, it's aesthetic,

it's pageantry because it's a show.

Historian Alexander Mariotti
is an expert in gladiatorial combat.

He believes
early gladiatorial contests

are a show of Rome's military power.

There was very many different styles
of gladiator.

The reasoning for this is that
they didn't originate on the arena,

they originated on the battlefield.

This ornate armour has an origin,

and that origin is a group
of people called the Samnites.

The Samnites
were incredibly fierce people

and they had a reputation
for being absolutely ferocious.

The Romans
fought against the Samnites,

and, having defeated them,

they found themselves
with two resources...

..a whole bunch of prisoners of war

and a whole bunch of very fancy
armour they're never going to use.

So, what did they do?

They decided
to humiliate the Samnites

by making them fight to the death
in their own armour.

And this is why the first type of
gladiator was, in fact, the Samnite.

Argh!

In the 3rd century BCE

Rome's military aggression continues.

Over the course of 95 years

it conquers the Italian peninsula,

the Carthaginians in Sicily,

Hispania in the west,

the Balkans in the east,

and then Greece and Turkey.

A hundred years later

Rome ruled around 45 million people.

Rome had to find a way
to keep hold of power,

and there was nothing better
than forming an example.

So, whenever a defeated nation
crossed the Romans, faced defeat,

their further defeat
was humiliation,

and that was in the arena.

And, so they would show
their enemies

fighting for nothing more
than entertainment and pleasure.

And, whilst it entertained
the crowds,

it sent a message
to those who would cross Rome -

"This is what happens to you."

With outfits and weapons
inspired by defeated enemies,

gladiators were visual evidence
of Roman supremacy.

And, in a society
where violence was commonplace,

the crowds loved the bloodletting.

We're looking at a society

where many people will have had
direct experience of warfare,

and an attractive explanation

for the success
of these displays of violence

is that those performances

provided the city-dwelling
audience of Rome

with a heavily controlled
representation of violence.

When the Colosseum was built

it became a showcase for the empire's
staggering military might.

But how did such a temple to violence
come to be here,

in the heart of Rome?

At the Colosseum

a bold new excavation project
is underway.

Lead archaeologist, Federica Rinaldi,
runs the team.

An earthquake in the 14th century

brought down part of the Colosseum's
outer corridors and walls.

The archaeologists are digging
where these structures once stood,

into their very foundations.

Here they come across a complex
network of drains lined with bricks.

Rufi?
Rufi.

OK.

The Romans stamped their bricks

so that each factory
could be held accountable

for the quality of its products.

It's proof
that the Colosseum foundations

were built in the reign of Vespasian,
the ninth emperor of Rome.

So, why did he decide to build
the Colosseum and build it here?

Vespasian takes the throne in 69 CE.

He faces a huge problem.

The previous emperor, Nero,
left an empire at war with itself.

Just metres from the Forum

he built himself
a huge palatial complex -

the Domus Aurea,
meaning the 'Golden House'.

The very construction of that palace

had led to the eviction
of thousands of people

from, really, a central site
in the city of Rome.

So, it is a monument of despotism,

it is a monument of extravagance
and imperial corruption.

And Nero didn't stop there.

Alongside his grand estate

he built a huge statue of himself
30 metres tall

known as the Colossus.

So, we're talking about
a megalomaniac,

we're talking about a person that
wants to leave his mark in the city.

After Nero's death

Rome fell into a year-long civil war.

In the political fallout,
there's a lot of bloodshed,

there's a lot of uncertainty,

and from that competition,
that Game Of Thrones experience,

there's one man
that remains standing.

His name was Vespasian.

Vespasian was not of royal blood,
but a military man...

..a general.

His first challenge -

building the relationship
with his people.

So, what does he do?

In place of Nero's vanity project...

..Vespasian builds the Colosseum.

It is a savvy political gesture

to erase Nero's legacy

and establish his own dynasty...

..the Flavians.

The amphitheatre was central to
the political program of Vespasian.

It was, first and foremost,

a major statement of the fact
that he was the new guy in charge.

In building the Colosseum,

Vespasian hopes to create a bond
with the people of Rome

and to restore order to society.

The question is does it work?

Much of the Colosseum has collapsed.

It's difficult to understand
its internal structure.

But the amphitheatre in Pompeii
is better preserved.

This is the first stone amphitheatre
ever built,

150 years older than the Colosseum.

It could provide important clues.

Darius Arya
has studied the remains in detail.

We have some corridors

that lead you directly
to the best seats in the house,

the ringside seats.

And then we have external staircases

all around here,

and that's going to take you
to the higher located seats.

The stadium was designed to maintain
strict segregation of social classes.

What we see is that there's
a rigid categorisation of people.

You literally have a blueprint
of how society works.

The most important people
have the best seats,

are closest to the action.

And, as you make your way up
into the nosebleed seats,

well, you're less and less
important,

reminding YOU
of YOUR place in that Roman society.

Classical historian Shushma Malik
has spotted clues

suggesting the same was true
at the Colosseum.

When we think about
the seating arrangements,

the different levels
are made from different materials.

So, at the bottom

we've got more brick
and solid stone.

But as we work our way
up to the top

the materials become wooden,

so, less comfortable, less secure.

This represents the difference

in who's sitting in the different
places in the Colosseum.

The architecture of the Colosseum
reinforces this difference.

On the ground floor

huge corridors nine metres tall

display exquisite reliefs.

The top-floor arcades
are smaller and left plain.

At the bottom we've got the elite,

so, we're talking about senators
and equestrians,

who were the richest people
in society.

And then, as we go further up,

in our next layer
we've got male citizens.

And then as we go further up

you have the other category
of society,

which is the rest, essentially,

so, non-citizens, the enslaved
and women.

Everyone in the crowd
knew their place.

We're looking really at a space

that restates
the political and social order

and that, on the one hand,

gives people plenty of entertainment
and plenty of fun,

but also gives the people in charge,
the men in charge,

the opportunity to control very
closely who's doing what and where.

The Colosseum was physical evidence
of Rome's social order.

Its architecture enforced it.

By 80 CE, after only eight years,

the grand construction was finished.

The first games could begin.

108 arcades stood here

stacked on top of each other

over three floors

almost 40 metres into the air.

On the ground floor

corridors for the exclusive use
of senators and senior politicians

led to ringside seats...

..while the public followed a network
of staircases and corridors

that took them
to seats determined by status...

..and at the centre
of the auditorium -

the emperor and his entourage...

..there to be entertained
by gladiators

brought from across the empire...

..and wild animals transported
from its remotest corners.

The glory and wealth of the empire

was represented in the arena
and in the new monument itself.

But were these first games
a success for the emperor?

We have a new venue that,
in terms of magnitude, complexity,

sheer might,

offers completely new opportunities.

The emperor uses the Colosseum,
the Flavian amphitheatre,

as the prime entertainment venue
in the city of Rome.

And that venue isn't just crucial
to the city of Rome,

it becomes in many ways
an icon of imperial power

that resonates
way beyond the confines of the city.

But that emperor isn't Vespasian.

Vespasian had a very
distinguished career as emperor.

He transforms the city,

building the first public
amphitheatre on such a grand scale.

Unfortunately for him, he didn't
live to see its completion.

Vespasian achieves
something very remarkable.

He dies in his own bed -

never a mean feat
for a Roman emperor.

Titus succeeds his father. HE gets
the glory of celebrating the games.

It was in many ways his big day.

He was, by inaugurating the
Amphitheatre as it was then known,

announcing, advertising,
stating the beginning of a new era,

of a new golden era.

To top it all off,

we have the sources that say

that Titus visibly wept
on the last day of the games,

lamenting the fact
that he'd never be able to top this.

These games were the most lavish
Rome had ever seen.

The Colosseum solidified

the legitimacy
of the Flavian dynasty...

..and presented the might
of the Roman Empire to the world.

The empire, in its sheer diversity,

in its exotic, mesmerising quality,

comes to town,

and it comes to town
first and foremost at the Colosseum,

at the amphitheatre
built by the Flavian emperors,

Vespasian and Titus.

From the start it was a success.

A regular supply
of bloody entertainment

would win the emperor's dynasty
the love of the Roman mob.

In scale, the Colosseum
would never be rivalled.

But, as Rome expanded,

versions of it
were built across the empire.

Over 700 kilometres from Rome,

close to the ancient city
of Carthage,

is El Jem in modern-day Tunisia.

In the heart of the town

another amphitheatre,

clearly modelled on the Colosseum.

But how and why was such
a statement structure built out here

on the edge of the empire?

Professor Nejib Ben Lazreg

has been excavating Roman sites
in Tunisia for almost 50 years.

We are
in the Amphitheatre of El Jem,

the biggest Roman monument
left in all North Africa.

The Romans had conquered this region
in the 2nd century BCE.

Its people,
once Rome's bitter enemies,

now filled the stands.

Imagine, on the opening day,

30,000 people
cheering and trampling,

all the atmosphere.

The people went mad.

Nejib surveys the building's
architectural features.

In the lattice of stone arches

he finds strange markings
carved into the blocks.

In the rough structures

one can find clues

that help to decipher the way these
technicians built their structures.

You have to be like a detective.
You have to understand these marks.

They hooked these stones from
either side for the block with ropes

and lifted.

And this made the construction
very quick and easy.

But this is Roman, you know.
No doubt about that.

The triangular marks
are notes left by the builders,

enabling them
to lift the stones with cranes

and signalling which way up
the blocks should be placed

like a set of instructions.

This shows how the Roman engineering
spread throughout the empire.

People don't think about it.

It's a small hole,
but it summarises a big empire.

This Roman building technique

allowed amphitheatres
as grand as the one at El Jem

to be erected in the most quick
and efficient way possible.

But, while the notches explain
how these amphitheatres were built,

they don't reveal why.

Using the Colosseum as a blueprint,

by the end of the 2nd century

more than 200 stone amphitheatres
were constructed across the empire,

right up to the very borders.

During the time
there were no mass media,

so the amphitheatre
WAS the mass media.

It spread the Roman values
in all the empire.

This was what cemented
the Roman Empire.

Amphitheatres
were a political project.

They shone as beacons of Roman
civilisation across conquered lands.

Popular culture tells
of extravagant spectacles

that mirrored
the greatness of the empire.

But what was the real scale
of the games?

Clues have been found

in the new archaeological dig
at the Colosseum.

Archaeologist Federica Rinaldi

and her site manager, Maria Rosaria,

examine artefacts found in a series
of channels dug into the foundations.

Si.
Si.

Hundreds more animal bones
have been found under the Colosseum

in the southern sewer collector
in 2022,

the largest collection
ever recovered here.

Were these finds
once fighting animals

or lunch for the attending crowds?

At the Sapienza University of Rome

zoo archaeologist Claudia Minniti
carries out further research.

Coins and pottery found alongside

date these bones to the Roman period.

Cleaning them reveals details
that can identify the animals.

Carnivores usually have sharp teeth
for cutting and tearing meat...

..whereas herbivores' teeth are flat.

It's one of dozens of bones and
skulls identified as bear remains.

It can only mean one thing.

Other skulls
belong to everyday animals...

..horses and dogs.

It's likely some of them
also took part in the spectacles.

But Claudia hones in
on a more unusual find.

The radius is a bone found
in the front legs of animals.

To identify which species,

Claudia compares
the size of these bones

to those of big cats living today.

Lions were caught and shipped
from North Africa and the Near East,

over 2,000 kilometres away from Rome.

But this collection of bones

reveals lions weren't the only
exotic animals used in the Colosseum.

These animals
from far-flung corners of the empire

left the crowds in no doubt of Rome's
dominion over the known world.

And the bones provide more clues
as to what went on in the arena.

The animals in the arena were
chased down by professional hunters,

known in Latin as 'venators'.

They specialised
in fighting dangerous animals,

including lions, bears and leopards.

These hundreds of bone remains

give a sense of the scale
of the spectacles in the Colosseum.

From the very beginning

no expense was spared to provide
entertainment for the masses.

And the spectacle...

..didn't stop there.

Palaeobotanist Alessandra Celant
is analysing further finds

from remains recently found
under the Colosseum floor.

Using a method
called 'water separation',

Alessandra can distinguish
between sediment, which is heavier,

and organic matter,
which floats to the surface...

..and can then be identified.

The pattern of the veins and the
shape of the cells in the leaf sample

act like a fingerprint.

Laurel was highly prized
by the Romans,

in food,
for the crowns of the emperors,

and as a gift to winning gladiators.

But Alessandra has found clues

that the laurel found here
had a different use.

It's a discovery
that could transform

our understanding
of how fights were staged.

These are the remains
of laurel branches.

While animals like leopards and lions

paraded and hunted
in a forest setting,

Alessandra's investigation

has also identified pollen
from evergreen and deciduous oaks.

She believes they were also used
in the spectacles.

The Romans didn't just bring
exotic animals to the Colosseum

but also a sense of theatre.

But ancient writers suggest

the inaugural games
included another spectacle

even more extraordinary

that showcased the empire's

political, financial
and military might.

A show that would stretch
Roman ingenuity to the limit.

In the heart of Rome

Darius Arya examines ancient texts

that describe the first games
of this brand-new amphitheatre.

Take a look at this -

"For Titus suddenly filled
this same theatre with water,

"and he brought in people on ships

"who engaged in a sea fight there."

We're talking about ship battles
in the Colosseum.

This passage
from Roman historian Cassius Dio

was written over a hundred years
after the inaugural games.

He never witnessed the event himself.

Naval battles had been
acted out before on artificial lakes.

Could they really be staged
in an amphitheatre?

We're talking about flooding the
largest arena in the ancient world.

It would have been a Herculean task
to carry something like this out.

So, how did they manage to do this?

It would take extraordinary skill
to build such a system.

A recent engineering investigation
into the Colosseum

reveals a possible mechanism.

Researchers suggest large ducts
that run around the circumference

fed into shallow channels
that could have filled the arena.

Calculations based on their capacity

proved that the arena could have then
been drained in just a few hours.

This sounds like
an incredible challenge,

but the Romans
were masters in engineering

and the manipulation of water.

Despite the shortage
of archaeological remains,

the network of channels
and the contemporary texts

suggest that naval reenactments
at Titus's inaugural games

may well have been a reality.

Just imagine it - now you have
this huge arena of the Colosseum

flooded with water,
filled with ships manned by sailors,

with these ships
ramming into each other

and the sailors
fighting each other to the death.

This is the kind of experience

that would have made
the Colosseum legendary.

The extravagance
of the Colosseum games

would echo across distant lands,

a reflection
of the empire's power and reach.

And, as Rome's dominion expanded
to its greatest extent,

this great amphitheatre,
its cousins and their gladiators

would become key tools of control.

But, such was the Colosseum's
importance,

its very success would even play
a role in the empire's downfall.